Addresses:

Career

Worked as a model and appeared in television commercials, 1980s;
appeared in music videos, 1990s; signed and was dropped from both Jive
Records and Epic, 1990s; made recording debut on Big Punisher's
single "How We Roll," 2001; sang on Ja Rule's
"Always on Time," 2001; sang on Fat Joe's
"What's Luv" single; wrote a remix version of
Jennifer Lopez's song "Ain't It Funny;" sang
on the soundtrack of the film
The Fast and the Furious,
2001; signed with the Murder Inc. label, 2001; released single,
"Foolish," 2002; released debut album,
Ashanti,
2002; published book of poems,
Foolish/Unfoolish: Reflections on Love,
2002; released
Chapter II,
2003. Television appearances include:
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch,
2002;
American Dreams,
2002;
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
2003.

hip–hop single of the year for "Foolish,"
R&B/hip–hop singles artist of the year, new
R&B/hip–hop artist of the year, Hot 100 singles artist of
the year, top new pop artist of the year, and female artist of the year,
all Billboard Awards, 2002; favorite new artist (pop/rock), American
Music Awards, 2003; favorite new artist (hip–hop/R&B),
American Music Awards, 2003; Grammy Award for best contemporary
R&B album, Recording Academy, for
Ashanti,
2002.

Sidelights

Ashanti became the hottest R&B act of 2002 when her debut album,
Ashanti,
broke sales records for female recording artists, and three of its
singles landed on the Top 10 charts simultaneously. The Long Island
native had only recently graduated from high school when she first
landed on the charts in 2001 with her vocals on the Big Punisher rap
song "How We Roll." Contributions on the tracks of other
stars from her record label, Murder Inc., pushed her star higher,
culminating with the release of
Ashanti.
That album earned the singer/songwriter two Soul Train Lady of Soul
Awards, eight Billboard Awards, and a Grammy. Her second album,
Chapter II,
released in the summer of 2003, also sold briskly, proving that Ashanti
is here to stay.

Ashanti Douglas, named after a tribe in the country of Ghana, was born
and raised in the Long Island, New York, community of Glen Cove. At Glen
Cove High, she was a track star and an honor student. She began
performing before the age of ten, modeling and appearing in TV
commercials. Soon afterward, she appeared in music videos as a dancer.
Music runs in her family; her father, Ken–Kaid, was a singer
before leaving show business for more steady work as a computer systems
administrator. Ashanti's little sister, Kenashia, also a singer,
took home the grand prize for children on the
Showtime at the Apollo
television show at the age of six. Ashanti's grandfather, James
Davis, was an advocate for civil rights, and served for many years as
the head of the Long Island chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

When Ashanti was 12 years old, her mother discovered her
daughter's singing talent. She had asked Ashanti to turn off the
radio while she did her chores, and left the room. Ashanti did as she
was told, but she began to sing the songs from the radio herself. Her
mother came back into the room to reprimand her for disobeying, and was
astonished to find that it was Ashanti making beautiful music, not the
radio. Soon afterward, Ashanti's parents entered their daughter
in a local talent show, which she handily won. From then on,
Ashanti's mother has acted as her co–manager.

At the age of 14, Ashanti landed her first recording contract, with Jive
Records. This label also featured such top artists as the Backstreet
Boys, 'N Sync, and Britney Spears. During that time, she divided
her efforts between high school and recording sessions with the label.
The company would send a limo to pick her up after school to take her to
the recording studio, where she would do her best to catch up on her
homework before recording and then while being driven home.

Ashanti and Jive ended their relationship after a year, before a single
album was released. When she was 17, however, Ashanti was picked up by
the Sony label Epic Records. It was a heady time for Ashanti, and the
label took out a full page ad in her high school year book
congratulating her on her graduation. That deal required her to move to
Atlanta, Georgia, which, Ashanti told Nekesa Mumbi Moody in the
Gazette
of Montreal, "kind of broke up the family." Ashanti
admitted that there were a lot of tears from family members the day she
left home.

But after only a year in Atlanta, the person who had signed Ashanti to
the label was let go, and the artists he had signed were also dismissed.
Ashanti returned home, again without an album to show for her time with
the new label. After graduating from high school in 1998, Ashanti was
faced with a difficult decision: to go on to college as many of her
friends were doing, or pursue her music career full time. She had been
admitted to Hampton University in Virginia on a track scholarship, and
her music career had yet to take off. Even so, she chose music over
continuing her academic education. At first it was difficult for her not
to feel discouraged as she struggled to gain broader recognition as a
singer while her friends enjoyed their freshmen year of college.

Nevertheless, Ashanti stuck it out, recording demos in New York while
looking for yet another record deal. After two years of hard work, she
got her break in the form of Chris Gotti, the brother of the president
of the Murder Inc. label. He introduced her to his brother, Irv, who
hired Ashanti to sing backup on a Big Punisher album released after the
hip–hop star's death. The song was "How We
Roll," and Ashanti's backing vocals helped to propel the
song to the top of the charts in early 2001.

Ashanti first hit the airwaves in a big way with her contribution to the
Ja Rule song "Always on Time," which came out in the
second half of 2001. The song, helped along by her refrain on the song,
hit the Billboard 100 as the seventh most–played song in the
United States. Hard on the heels of that release, she appeared on the
television show
Saturday Night Live
with Ja Rule. Soon people were stopping her in the street to ask for
her autograph.

Another collaboration soon followed, this time with Fat Joe, on a song
called "What's Luv." This song was also a hit, and
Murder Inc. signed Ashanti to her own contract. She began to play
concerts with Ja Rule at the same time that she worked on her own album.
Also during this time, Ashanti wrote a remix version of a song for
Jennifer Lopez called "Ain't It Funny," and sang on
the soundtrack for the film
The Fast and the Furious.

The first single from Ashanti's debut album, released before the
album itself, was "Foolish," which takes its melody from a
DeBarge song, and which was made famous by Notorious B.I.G. in his hit
rap "One More Chance." The song is based on
Ashanti's experience breaking up with a boyfriend. That
relationship, she told
Rolling Stone
's Matt Diehl, was "real, real serious," but could
not stand up to the stress put on it by Ashanti's success and her
heavy traveling schedule. According to Ashanti, the recording of the
song benefited from the synergy created
by the fact that everyone involved in the production, including the
engineers, was going through similar relationship troubles.

The melody for Ashanti's debut was chosen by Irv Gotti, and
Ashanti was nervous about having her debut single ride on the shoulders
of such a big star as B.I.G., but she trusted Gotti to put the best
possible sound on her debut. Gotti felt that the song needed "a
familiar beat that people would recognize," as he told Richard
Cromelin in the
Los Angeles Times.
His strategy, coupled with Ashanti's heart-felt lyrics and her
sultry vocals proved a winning combination; her single became a hit,
remaining at the top of the charts for ten weeks.

Ashanti continued to live at home, even after becoming a successful
recording artist, albeit in a separate apartment with her own entrance.
That situation had to change, she and her parents acknowledged in a 2001
New York Times
interview with Seth Kugel, since she was just a bit too accessible to
her ever–increasing numbers of fans. "They come right up
to the house," Ashanti's mother told Kugel. "Then
they bring kids from out of town." The family decided to move,
but not far—their new home was also on Long Island, though much
larger than their old one.

Ashanti's self–titled debut album hit the racks in April
of 2002, immediately dislodging Celine Dion from her perch at the top of
the charts by selling more than a million copies in a single month. The
album eventually outsold not only Dion, but also every other female
recording artist in history, with four million copies and counting.
Ashanti also became the first recording artist since the Beatles to have
three singles on the Top 10 charts at the same time. The album earned
Ashanti no less than five Grammy nominations, one of which—Best
Contemporary R&B Album—it won. The album also earned
Ashanti eight Billboard Awards. Over at MTV she grabbed four nominations
at the Video Music Awards and performed live at the popular event. She
also scored "Breakout Artist of the Year" from the 2002
Teen Choice Awards. In January of 2003, she won two awards at the 30th
annual American Music Awards.

However, one award she won in 2002 was also controversial. When it was
announced that Ashanti would receive the Soul Train Aretha Franklin
Award for "Entertainer of the Year" a high school boy in
California took offense and started an on–line petition against
her. He explained to the
Seattle Times
that she was too new to deserve the award and "she lacks stage
presence in the majority of her performances." Nearly 30,000
people agreed with him, signing the petition. Many pointed out that
established artists such as Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott or
critically acclaimed singers like Alicia Keys and India. Arie were more
deserving of an award that carries the name of a musical legend.
However, veteran singer Patti LaBelle, who presented the award, said the
singer was "extremely deserving of this wonderful
recognition," according to a report in the
Cincinnati Post.
Ashanti also picked up the Soul Train Lady of Soul award for best new
solo artist.

Despite chart–topping success, most reviewers panned
Ashanti's debut effort. Other critics pointed to the fact that
Ashanti
's phenomenal first week sales were propelled along by Island Def
Jam Music Group, the parent company of Murder Inc. The company offered
retailers a two–dollar rebate for each album sold in the first
two weeks. While it is true that Ashanti was hot, Lyor Cohen, CEO of
Island Def Jam, confessed to the
New York Times,
"We put gasoline in the carburetor." For Ashanti, who was
happy just to have a record deal that actually resulted in a album, her
debut's astounding success was just icing on the cake. "I
never dreamed of all this," she told Glenn Gamboa in
Newsday.
"I just wanted the album to be released.… To have it
finished and have it released and in stores was a major
accomplishment."

Always conscious of her roots, Ashanti chose her hometown as the
location for the music video for "Happy," one of the cuts
on
Ashanti.
She remembered as a child waiting in vain for stars to visit Glen Cove,
and as an R&B superstar, she decided to finally bring some star
power to the little city. Her handlers suggested Los Angeles or Monte
Carlo as possible locations, but Ashanti was firm; Glen Cove was her
favorite place, and she wanted her home-town to share in her success.
With that, dozens of crew members and 20 trailers full of production
equipment descended on the city for three days of shooting. The mayor
presented Ashanti with the key to the city, and the executive of Nassau
County declared May 3, 2002, Ashanti Douglas Day.

Around this time, Ashanti also took a stab at bringing her verses to
print with a book of poems titled
Foolish/Unfoolish: Reflections on Love.
Although her book is about love, she has admitted that she has been
less than lucky in that department. She blamed it on being overworked
with concerts and other public appearances, and also the fact that she
is followed everywhere she goes by employees of her record label. As she
told Peter Robinson in the
Observer,
"It's a little difficult to meet people when I have a
bunch of big brothers standing there everywhere I go. But I suppose
it's a good thing. They do it out of love."

Ashanti's second album,
Chapter II,
was released in the summer of 2003. In the same vein as her debut, it
features, in the words of the
Observer
's Robinson, "fresh–sounding breezy beats and
irresistible hooks underpinning Ashanti's silky R&B
style." Ashanti has said that one of her favorite parts of the
album is a short duet she sings with her
then–14–year–old sister. The first single from
Chapter II,
called "Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)," immediately hit the
charts and rose to the top 10.

In 2003, Ashanti was nominated for two American Music Awards: Favorite
Female Artist—Hip–Hop/Rhythm & Blues Music and
Favorite Album—Hip–Hop/Rhythm & Blues Music, for
Chapter II.

Ashanti remained determined not to let success go to her head, knowing
full well that disappointment in the music business is often not far
away. "I take it one day at a time," she told
Newsday
's Gamboa. "I've had to get used to so many
letdowns."